An Introduction
For several years I've been watching American church people slide into increasing fear and polarization. This has been developing for some time, but 2020 has pushed us over the edge. The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown have rocked us to the core. The racial unrest and demonstrations in the midst of all the disruption elevated an already overwhelming time.
We’ve had a near war with Iran, constant unrest in the middle east, and a divisive political climate in an election year. All of this dominates our minds so much that we’ve all but forgotten stories like Australia burning or murder hornets. It seems like the world is experiencing the bowls of God’s wrath from Revelation. We are all beginning to ask, “God, what in the world are you doing?”
I hope to answer that question to some degree as I venture back into blogging after 7 years. Because of the role I’m in with Mission Resource Network, I see the world from a divergent angle. My hope is to bring some clarity and direction from a Christ-centered global perspective to help us make sense of our times and what it means to be Jesus' people right now.
Warning: This blog will talk about hard things. It won’t be all sunshine, but it will be hopeful. Ultimately, I’ll be writing with the conviction that God is leading His world, and that He will triumph. God is merely asking us to follow Him in what He is doing.
I want to start this blog with some good news. Despite how things may look and feel to us in the USA, Christianity is doing extremely well globally. If you count by conversion instead of by birth, Christianity is the world’s fastest-growing religion. The mission of God is doing well.
Just look at Africa. In the last 100 years, Africa has gone from 10% to 50% Christian. There will soon be a billion followers of Jesus in Africa, and it will be the world's most Christian continent.
Then there is China. After the communist revolution in the early 1950s, it looked like a small, weak church in China had been eradicated. Instead, it had gone underground and exploded. Today, China may have 120 million or more believers in Jesus. They are thriving though intensely persecuted. Christians may only be 10% of 1.2 billion people, but that still represents perhaps the largest number of active Christians in any single nation on the earth.
In the last few decades, nations such as Brazil and S. Korea have become among the world's leading missions sending countries. As we’ve seen through our MedRim Initiative, Latinos make great missionaries to Arab and North African Muslims. Korean missionaries are common throughout Asia and beyond. The Christian faith is not in decline worldwide, but it is going through a transformation. The center of life and vitality is shifting South and East.
God is on the move today, just like He was at Pentecost. At a recent missions conference, I heard Leith Anderson say, "If you count globally, on average, 3,000 people give their life to Jesus every hour of every day around the planet. Every day is another Pentecost, just not all in one place."
In 1900, 80% of Christians lived in Europe and North America, but by 2000, only 37% did. This is not just because of the decline of Christianity in the West. It is about the exploding of the Christian faith in the majority world. In the USA, churches among the majority white population are in slow decline, but they are on the rise among people of color and immigrants. Globally, we are living in a golden age for the mission of God.
The church in the West is being pruned and transformed, but God is not done with us. The farmer may have come into the American vineyard with a knife, but He is cutting us back, not cutting us off. It hurts, but it isn't fatal. God knows what He is doing and only wants us to be fruitful after losing some dead weight.
God is still calling on the church in the U.S. to be engaged in His global mission, but with a different posture. While the majority world has 70% of the world's Christians, they only have 17% of the church's money. The United States has 5% of the world’s population, but we have 25% of the world’s money. Obviously, the American church needs to be putting financial resources in the mission of God. However, the U.S. has far more than money to share. We bring leadership training, education models, engineering, medicine, and much more. But it’s not just about what we can contribute. We need to stay engaged in global missions for what we learn. If we want the church to grow here, we need to learn from what God is doing there.
If you ask what in the world God is doing right now, three trends stand out that are creating globalization.
1. Urbanization: The world became over 50% urban around 2005 for the first time. It is projected to be 70% by 2050.
2. Immigration: More people are living outside their home countries than at any time in history. In 2017, 258 million people were international migrants. Only 10% were refugees. 43 million U.S. residents today were foreign-born.
3. Technology: We live in an era of instant global communication and cheap travel. We can talk to nearly anyone anywhere with stunning ease. Our greatest challenge now is time zones.
All these forces are disorienting. They bring massive challenges. They are creating a lot of fear. Fear leads to conflict and violence. Nationalism is on the rise across the globe. This is understandable even if it is not helpful. But as we wrestle with how to respond to the changes in our world, the question we need to be asking is, who is driving this? Has God been caught by surprise? Please.
I believe what is happening is that God is collecting people from all over the world into the cities of the world and has given us the technology to reach everyone in one generation. If God is in this, do we want to fight Him or join Him?
What in the world is God doing? Exactly what scripture has told us He has been doing for a long time. God is bringing people from every nation, race, tribe, and language together to form one people in a new heaven and earth with God in their midst. In Ephesian 2:13-14, the apostle Paul said, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility."
How do we join what God is doing? Don't let politicians play on your fears and cause you to lose your heart for God's world. Invest globally. Commit to pray globally. (e.g., join us in prayer at www.medrim.org ). Ask God if He is calling you to go (short, mid, or long term).
Despite how disorienting the news sounds or how much fear we sometimes feel cropping up in us, this is a great time to be alive and love Jesus. God is redeeming every people, race, tribe, and tongue and is asking us to join Him. God just wants us to stop being afraid, trust He is still in charge, and join His mission to redeem His world.